HOLY SUNDAY.-The Senate of the Republic yesterday elected the regular and alternate members of the Central Electoral Board (JCE) to direct the organization until 2028.
There were few changes as expected.
Román Andrés Jáquez Liranzo will repeat as president of the JCE and the Plenary will be made up of Dolores Altagracia Fernández, Samir Rafael Chami Isa, Rafael Armando Vallejo Santelices and Hirayda Mercedes Fernández, all repeaters, except for the last mentioned.
The substitutes will be Pedro Antonio López Corniel, Cristian Perdomo Hernández, Yvan Vladimir Feliz Vargas, Anibelka Rosario and Tony Tejada.
Selection process
The selection process began with the registration of 101 candidates, of which 31 were women and 70 men.
The special committee in charge of evaluating and shortlisting the candidates conducted several rounds of interviews and deliberations.
Senators Moisés Ayala Pérez, Lía Inocencia Díaz-Santana, Pedro Antonio Tineo, Gustavo Lara Salazar, Mircea Ortiz and Omar Fernández participated in this process. During the interviews, aspects such as the candidates’ professional experience, their ethics, and their knowledge of constitutional, electoral and political party system issues were evaluated.
The preselection included a list of 51 candidates, of which 30 names were chosen and advanced to be evaluated in the final shortlists.
In these deliberations, each member of the special commission presented their proposals and a consensus was achieved among the nine senators involved.
The final report was approved and presented to the full Senate, which applied a plan model to make the selection, with only one being presented after coordinating with the represented blocks.
Profiles
Román Jáquez is a lawyer and academic with a 28-year career in the legal and electoral field. He repeats as president of the JCE, being the first official in more than five decades to achieve this continuity in office. In addition, Jáquez Liranzo is the only one to have led both the JCE and the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), where he served as presiding judge between 2017 and 2020.
His academic preparation is extensive, with master’s degrees in Political and Electoral Studies, Law and International Relations, and University Management.
Among his achievements, the publication of the book “Electoral Issues” in 2021 stands out, as well as his leadership in international organizations such as the World Electoral Justice Network and the Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations (UNIORE).
Under his management, the JCE obtained certifications in four ISO standards and transformed the National Electoral Training School into a higher education institute.
The Senate has expressed its confidence in the JCE under the leadership of Jáquez Liranzo, highlighting its commitment to transparency and electoral integrity, key factors to strengthen democracy in the country.
With the inclusion of recognized professionals and the selection process conducted with rigor and transparency, the JCE now faces the challenge of consolidating public confidence in the electoral processes with a view to 2028.
In the case of Dolores Fernández, she graduated from the Universidad Católica Tecnológica del Cibao with a degree in Law. He completed a Master’s Degree in Electoral Political Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra (PUCMM). She is the most experienced of the group along with Rafael Vallejo, since prior to her first appointment as a full member of the JCE in 2020, she was in charge of the Civil Registry.
Samir Chami is a lawyer and has multiple master’s degrees. Since 2011 he has been a member of the non-partisan civic movement Citizen Participation and during the years 2009 and 2011 he was its general coordinator.
Within that organization he was a member of the National Council, the Coordinating Committee, the Political Analysis Commission, coordinator of the Justice Commission, and coordinator of the Congress and Citizenship Commission.
Rafael Vallejo Santelises, also a lawyer, was a regular member of the JCE for the first time in the years 1994 to 1998 and was selected again from 2020-2024. Now you will have to repeat it for the third time.
Finally, Hirayda Fernández is a lawyer, court interpreter and university professor. It has varied postgraduate courses. He is from the group that goes from being a substitute (2020-2024) to a regular member for the next four years.
She will replace Patricia Lorenzo, who is the only one in the current plenary session of the JCE who was not considered to repeat the position.
No trauma
— Unanimity
The selection of the Central Electoral Board passed without major difficulties in the Senate. Only Senator Antonio Marte showed discomfort with one of those selected, although without identifying him, but he was partially ignored.
Julito Furcal defends jobs
Furcal directed the work of the commission.
Arguments. Julito Furcal was responsible for chairing the special Senate commission that evaluated 101 candidates to join the Central Electoral Board.
Yesterday, when presenting the report detailing the steps taken throughout the process, he defended the work of the commission, ensuring that they adhered to ethics at all times and that, despite the fact that many candidates had the endorsement to join the JCE, the Constitution and the laws only allow ten people to be chosen.
In the case of the substitutes, the political scientist and lawyer Freddy Ángel Castro does not repeat the position.
Each substitute temporarily assists one of the starters if their presence is required. They act as a contingency for eventualities such as death, resignation or illness.
